Financial Pressures Could Push Air Force Back to TSPR

摘要

The beginning of the space mission for the U.S. Department of Defense was in July 1954, when the Western Development Division established a temporary headquarters in a former parochial school in Inglewood, Calif. Gen. Bernard Schriever arrived in September, leading an Air Force organization that came to be called the "Old Schoolhouse Gang" and forming solid principles for space systems acquisition. In these early days, the hallmark of the Schriever way of doing business was for the government to assert its imperatives, prerogatives and responsibilities for total systems development, integration and ultimate performance. Government program managers were charged to achieve success. They had the ultimate decision authority and accountability for the system and system components, and the ability to assure that all of the system components worked together to provide a cohesive capability.